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Brazil, Ecuador, Groups Doing Microfinance, Guatemala, Kenya, Microfinance, Ministry, Peru, Travels
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What is it with developing countries and their propensity to operate any societal institution or structure corruptly with a myopic view of future development and without a clear understanding that corruption both large and small continues to challenge the trust of their people, cities, counties, businesses, churches, etc.
Corruption is nothing new to human existence, but the pervasive acceptance among developing world nations continues to astound us on this trip, whether the corruption comes from a high ranking government official in hopes of hidden compensation to supplement his growing thirst for wealth or the local police officer wrongly accusing someone in order to augment his meager salary.
We took a taxi home one night in Kenya when a police barricade impeded our progress. The well dressed officer approached the passenger window, oblivious to the two of us sitting behind the tinted glass backseat. “Good evening”, exclaimed the officer as he asked for the driver’s license and registration and simultaneously looking for any leverage for a bribe such as an expired taxi registration and vehicle insurance. The driver was operating within the law, but that didn’t exonerate him from further scrutiny. Questions continued until the officer noticed us in the back seat. “Friends!!! How are you tonight”, asked the officer while clutching his M16. A little nervous, we continued an awkward conversation for a few minutes before the officer implored the driver to continue on his way and take his new friends to our destination.
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Brazil, Ecuador, Groups Doing Microfinance, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Marshall Islands, Microfinance, Ministry, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Travels
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The LOCATIONS PAGE is the latest webpage to be unveiled on www.shiftingparadigms.org by our fantastic web designer Timothy Burch at Visual Prophesy!
The locations page gives concise and poignant descriptions of who Paradigm Shift will work with in the coming months and downloadable 1 Page PDF Country Briefs for each country we’ve worked in with descriptions of what took place.
So, go to the top of the page then click on the Locations link to get a better sense of what is happening for Phase One at Paradigm Shift.
Last week we had the privilege of meeting with two entrepreneurs and touring their businesses. We were able to learn a lot about the lives of entrepreneurs in this city and some of the struggles they face.
The first entrepreneur lives only three blocks from Casa Victoria. About 14 years ago, he gathered the supplies to rig up several machines which together produce ice cream bars. Today, he owns a house where approximately 30 members of his family live. The ice cream operation is in the basement of his house and every day, the women in the family head to the streets to sell the ice cream. Slowly but surely he has built the business to what it is today. Because he has no access to credit with which he could expand his business, his family still lives in one house and struggles to have money for their basic needs such as clothing and food.
The city council recently called Casa Victoria and asked that someone from the house attend a meeting in an hour. During that meeting, the city announced that they would be conducting a competition and subsequently providing grants to groups who could put together viable proposals of how they could help the poor areas of the city.
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